Percoco, Former Close Cuomo Aide, Guilty On 3 Counts

A former close aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was found guilty on three counts of federal corruption charges related to a bribery and bid rigging scheme.

The guilty verdict in the case of Joe Percoco was coupled with not guilty results for two prominent upstate developers who had also been accused of corruption and bribery by federal prosecutors.

Percoco was found guilty of three counts of public corruption, namely conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud and solicitation of bribes and gratuities. But the jury returned a split guilty and not guilty verdict on the charges of bribery and extortion.

The split verdict is nevertheless a blow to Cuomo, who had took office in 2011 on a pledge to rid Albany of corruption and change the culture of pay to play at the Capitol.

Cuomo has refrained from commenting on the case over the last several weeks, saying he would not want to interfere with the judicial process. Cuomo was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Percoco was portrayed as a mere scheduler or advance man in Albany by his attorneys. But to Cuomo he was much more, appearing as a fixer as well as the governor’s eyes and ears at the Capitol. Cuomo referred to Percoco as a veritable brother, calling him his father’s third son in a 2014 memoir.

The trial revealed some embarrassing anecdotes about the functioning of the governor’s office, including the effort to prevent staffers from leaving the administration and Percoco’s appearance in the governor’s government office during the 2014 re-election campaign when he was working as campaign manager.

Percoco was accused of accepting bribes from COR development executive Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi and Peter Galbraith Kelly from Competitive Power Ventures, and using his position in state government and his relationship with the governor to move projects forward.

The jury came back deadlocked on the charges against Kelly.

COR development is a real estate company that’s worked on several high profile-projects in Syracuse, and CPV is an energy company that owns a power plant in the Hudson Valley.

This was a lengthy trial, with the proceedings stretching over 23 days.

Jurors heard from almost 30 witnesses, and listened to about 14 hours of closing arguments. The four defendants each face several charges, and the jury had to debate each count.

The prosecution’s star witness, lobbyist Todd Howe, had plead guilty to charges related to the scheme the others are accused of running.

Then halfway through his testimony he admitted to committing fraud on the stand and was taken back into government custody- meaning he went to jail each day after court.
And there were a lot of pop culture references: the defendants regularly used the term “ziti” in emails in reference to The Sopranos, where it was a code word for money.

The impact of the case also stretches beyond this trial.

Aiello and Gerardi will be on trial again later this spring along with four other defendents accused of another bribery scheme, this one centered around SUNY Polytechnic Institute and the “Buffalo Billion” economic development projects.
And then there’s the governor’s race.

One issue that came up was the Percoco used the governor’s state offices while he was working on the campaign, which would be a misuse of state resources.

Elected officials are not allowed to use their positions for political purposes. Republicans are already trying to make an issue of that, and so we’ll be watching to see whether this changes voter’s opinion of the governor.

This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on March 13, 2018 at 12:21 pm, and is filed under Andrew Cuomo. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Phil

Cuomo’s silence is just as good as an admission of guilt.
Time to show Cuomo the door and clean up Albany!

orange county

Without knowing all the particulars…. Percoco is found guilty of soliciting bribes and gratuities but the two charged with providing the bribes are acquitted? How does that work? How come one without the other?

Goebbels

Trum, nice of you to come out of your hole. Where you been hiding? Your idol’s going away for a long long time

ComradTrump

Republicans will say Cuomo is guilty because his boy went down while at the same time saying its no big deal that 5 of Trumps boys went down.

A Taxpayer

Cuomo should do all of NYS a favor and resign and go away. I am sick of listening to his pontificating.

Phil

There’s an old saying, if the shoe fits wear it. In this case, that’s Cuomo and his best friend Joe P who was just convicted on 3 counts of corruption.
And none of Trump’s “boys” as you say have been arrested, that’s just pure fantasy on your part.
btw, we know its you trumsy, you can’t hide!

David Dennison-c/o White House

Legally, a guilty plea is the end of the process. Being arrested is the start of the process. Guilty pleas from Gates, Flynn, Popodopolous and VanderZwann all the Rump’s boys! So wear those shoes Fact Free Phil. Every time you comment you show your ignorance!

pHiL

Not even sure who all these people you reference are, but none were close confidants like Joe P was to Andy C.

David Dennison-c/o White House

Mike Flynn? You know nothing. A complete a
A$$hole!

Phil

Didn’t he get fired for lying? I believe so and that would make your point completely useless.

pHiL

Don’t get your panties in a wad either big boy.

David Dennison-c/o White House

He plead guilty. He was so clearly guilty he did not even contest the facts and now he will provide evidence that leads to Bonespur spending the rest of his life behind bars. Treason is the ugliest of crimes.

Phil

but he had been fired by that time, guess you forgot that.

David Dennison-c/o White House

So…that makes a difference? Both are treasonous. W hat was Flynn doing in Russia having dinner with Putin? No collusion! BS!

Phil

you are vile, do you think inserting vulgarity helps your losing cause?

David Dennison-c/o White House

How did the Pubs do in Pa? Folks are waking up. Eleven million spent by dark money PAC trying to buy a win. Even huge spending did not help!

David Dennison-c/o White House

Trump not addressing Stormy is just as good as an admission of guilt! Right?

Phil

Don’t think they know the winner yet, sure you’re ready to celebrate? Might be a bit premature like your celebration for Hillary and you didn’t even vote for her.
We’ll just have to live with Cuomo’s downfall today then.

Phil

What’s there to address? She signed a confidentially agreement and now wants to back out of the deal she signed onto. What’s Soros paying her more now for the story? She’d sell anything for a buck.

David Dennison-c/o White House

Nothing there to address…even when you take out of the equation that we are stuck with a PIG for our country’s leader the clear issue of campaign finance violations will need to be addressed. No one believes Cohen mortgaged his own home and formed a Delaware based LLC to pay off this woman without the Rump campaign being fully aware of what was going on! Been more than a year since our nations leader has stood before the full press and answered questions. Why, I wonder? Starting to look like we will have a Democratic House next year (unless Russia interferes out of desperation) and them we will find out “What’s there to address?”